In Yardstick’s content team, the last blogs of 2023 are being written and newsletters with season’s greetings are being built. But we’re already thinking about the year ahead, and these five new year resolutions could help financial planners get more out of their blog content in 2024.

1. “I will set out my focus for the year”

Your content should cover a variety of topics to keep your readers interested. However, having a focus and understanding what’s likely to capture your clients’ attention could boost engagement.

Consider who your clients are and their:

• Goals
• Challenges
• Concerns

With a picture of your “ideal” client, you can start to assess which topics could prove useful and interesting to them.

Of course, your focus might change over the year. Perhaps a Budget announcement in March means that your focus will need to shift to reflect changes. Or you might spot a trend when you’re speaking to clients that you want to address.

Yet, there’s still value in setting out a focus now. It’s a step that could help you look at things from the perspective of your clients and give your content direction.

2. “I will post regular content to my website”

When it comes to blog content, consistency is key for several reasons.

First, it’s a great way to keep in touch with your clients between your regular meetings.

They’ll quickly get used to hearing the latest news and your views frequently. So, if they decide they need additional advice or come across a friend or colleague who could benefit from working with a financial planner, you’re more likely to come to mind.

Second, regular content can provide a boost to your website too.

A regular stream of content could help improve your website’s search engine optimisation (SEO) ranking. It suggests to search engines that you’re offering timely, relevant information, which could help drive more traffic to your website.

3. “I will consistently share my blog content on social media”

Publishing blogs on your website is just part of the task of content marketing. You also need to get the content in front of the right people.

At Yardstick, our membership clients benefit from regular newsletters, so your clients and prospects receive your latest insights straight to their inboxes.

An area you might have overlooked in the past is social media. It could be a great way to not only engage with your existing clients but reach new audiences too.

You shouldn’t just post the latest blogs on your social media profile either. Sometimes, older content is still relevant.

Back in March, you might have created a post about how the Annual Allowance for most people increased to £60,000. With the end of the tax year looming in April, it could be the perfect time to reuse that content to remind people to check if they’ve used their full allowance.

Read Abi’s blog to pick up 50 top tips to use LinkedIn effectively.

4. “I will review key data after I’ve sent a newsletter”

If you’re already sending out newsletters to put your content in front of clients and prospects, are you reviewing how they’re performing?

Taking a look at the key statistics could help you identify what’s working. You might want to consider the:

• Open rate – the percentage of people on your mailing list who opened your email
• Click-through rate – the percentage of people who clicked on a link within your newsletter.

You could also look at which links are being clicked the most to assess which topics your mailing list finds appealing. Are more people clicking to read about pensions or protection?

5. “I will make my content part of offline conversations”

You don’t need to keep your blog content to newsletters and online conversations. It can be useful when you’re speaking to clients face to face too.

Pointing clients and prospects in the direction of content that’s relevant to them could help to reiterate some of the points you’ve discussed in your meeting and give them something to refer back to.

Perhaps after a discovery meeting with a person who has been referred to you for retirement advice, sending them a guide that goes over their pension options could be useful. It might be something they read over the next few days or weeks that helps to build their trust in you and, as it’ll contain your details, serve as a call to action.

Contact us to boost your content in 2024

Whether you want help creating a complete marketing strategy or could benefit from the expertise of one of our copywriters, you can contact us to learn more about how we could support your goals.

Get in touch by emailing hi@theyardstickagency.co.uk or calling us on 0115 8965 300.